Giving up the Marlboro lights....

msmancunia
msmancunia Posts: 1,415
edited October 2012 in Commuting chat
I stopped smoking two weeks ago and I'm really struggling. Have a NRT patch on, but it itches and gives me seriously weird dreams, but trying to stick with it.

Cravings not really getting any easier though. Any tips? Does it get easier? Have even given up the Pinot G so that it doesn't set me off....
Commute: Chadderton - Sportcity
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Comments

  • I gave up in January after 25 years of smoking. It's bloody hard for the first couple of months but stick with it.

    Don't sleep with a NRT patch on, that'll stop the weird dreams. You shouldn't sleep with them on anyway despite what it might say on the packet. You didn't sleep with a Marlboro on the go did you?!

    I also used the inhalers. They really helped because it helped with the "habit" smokes i.e. after food, when you leave work etc.

    It took me about 6 months until i stopped coughing my guts up after a bike ride, but feel great for not smoking now.

    The only downside for me was that I put on two and a half stone in weight, so that's next on my agenda once Ireach my first smoke free anniversary.

    Good luck.
  • spatt77
    spatt77 Posts: 324
    Hi, I gave up the very same cigs, nearly 3 years ago after smoking for nearly 25 years! i read Alan Carrs book, "Easy way to stop smoking" and found it very helpful,my advice for what`s its worth is this,Once you get it right in your head it really is quite easy to give up, I think some people talk themselves out of giving up before they`ve started!. Also I would`nt bother with the patches,your just feeding the nicotine beast inside you! this of course is just my opininon and what worked for me,I have`nt touched a cig since,but its all a pyscological battle really but if i can do it anyone can! good luck and let me know how your doing! :D
  • It took me a couple of weeks on lozenges to go from 20 a day to none.
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • getprg
    getprg Posts: 245
    Nearly 35 years since I gave up (30-40 a day!) but still recall that period of craving dragging on for several months - and then returning from time to time. Always when drinking, after meals and first thing in morning. I saw it as a macho challenge to give up. Always carried a pack of cigs with me for first 6 months with the lid sellotaped - to avoid lighting up on auto pilot. That way I always knew I was in control and wasn't 'not smoking' just because I didn't have them with me. I also transferred the money saved into a separate account each month as a bonus - to buy a car at the time - would probably be a new bike now!
  • I slipped after 5 years off the smokes, and very rapidly became as bad as ever. I really need to give them the push.
  • sketchley
    sketchley Posts: 4,238
    From experience, just stop, no patches, nothing. You just need to accept that you will have cravings and there are two ways to get rid of them. 1 have fag or 2 don't have a fag and wait a bit, sometimes 5 min sometimes an hour or two. But once you work that out it's easy from there. The cravings never stop but your ability to deal with them over time does, for example tonight when out drinking with my brother, who was smoking, I had a craving and could easily given in but chose not to yet I'm not craving now and I'm actually quite chuffed I didn't have one....
    --
    Chris

    Genesis Equilibrium - FCN 3/4/5
  • DonDaddyD
    DonDaddyD Posts: 12,689
    Chewing gum.

    Wriggles Extra - the green one.

    Do yuou dream about me? :twisted:
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    A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
  • asprilla
    asprilla Posts: 8,440
    I used an eCig after years of trying with patches, lozenges, throat sprays and such.
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  • + for the 'just stop' method

    That's how I did it. It took about 8 goes but eventually I got there.

    I'm astonished that anybody smokes* nowadays. Aside from the obvious health risks and social inconveniences the price is just horrendous.






    *actually I'm not astonished, that's just a turn of phrases. People smoke because cigarettes are incredibly addictive.
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • Disgusting habit.

    Smokers stink - surely you must have noticed all your non-smoking friends keeping a healthy distance away? If you really must smoke switch to a pipe.
    Nobody told me we had a communication problem
  • I just moved to chewing tobacco and have never smoked since.
  • I cut back to 1 per day for many years (from about 10-15 per day or up to 20+ if I was out for the night)... Was very strict with myself but then it began creeping up so I stopped completely. I used the nicotine gum, it certainly helped a bit, especially when I was out at bars and pubs. Another thing that has helped me is the smoking ban, friends of mine who smoke have to leave the table and go outside. Before the ban, they would spark up at the table and i would inevitably ask if I could cadge one.... I still occasionally smoke - perhaps 2 per month... Once a smoker, always a smoker they say...
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  • rubertoe
    rubertoe Posts: 3,994
    Good luck MsM.

    I have tried and failed several times to give up but plan to do so for stoptober. so the last one will be had at some point over the weekend!

    Health, finances and "other" reasons are what are driving me (and I have just got an N+1 that needs paying for)
    "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

    PX Kaffenback 2 = Work Horse
    B-Twin Alur 700 = Sundays and Hills
  • Go to Marlboro Menthol. The packet is green so it counts as one of your five a day right?

    In all seriousness what little smoking I did I stopped by 'deciding' not to smoke anymore. Make the decision and you'll be fine.
    What do you mean you think 64cm is a big frame?
  • kissing a smoker is just about the most disgusting thing. its not the smell of smoke that puts me off so much, its the rancid oniony nicotine flavour that just hangs around.
  • mudcow007
    mudcow007 Posts: 3,861
    what you need is to start using something else that isn't as addictive as cigarettes to take the part of cigarettes

    take up meth

    take this gal for instance, she went from looking like a drug addict (red hair) to a brunette by only using only the meth diet

    TypicalIdahoMethUser.png

    plus it will do wonders for your figure, when was the last time you seen a fat drug addict*


    *not that im calling you fat!!
    Keeping it classy since '83
  • I quit, after some 15 years, using a combination of procrastination and sheer bloodymindedness.
    If I fancied a smoke I'd say "maybe in 10 mins...", and so long as I didn't spend that 10 mins thinking about it, generally I'd lose the craving.

    I also carried a pack of tobacco with me for the first month or so. That stopped me getting into the "argh ! I can't ever smoke again!" mood, and just think "I'm not having a smoke right now, I can always have one later..." - see procrastination, above.

    I decided to forego patches and all that - it's just making you believe you need either to smoke or have a substitute. You don't...
    Misguided Idealist
  • Gussio
    Gussio Posts: 2,452
    I just moved to chewing tobacco and have never smoked since.

    You can't beat the buzz* from a quid of RedMan :?




    *By buzz, read chronic nausea...
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 27,485
    + for the 'just stop' method

    That's how I did it. It took about 8 goes but eventually I got there.

    I'm astonished that anybody smokes* nowadays. Aside from the obvious health risks and social inconveniences the price is just horrendous.






    *actually I'm not astonished, that's just a turn of phrases. People smoke because cigarettes are incredibly addictive.

    I can vouch for this, even though I've never actively smoked. I had a holiday job as a student cleaning at the local hospital; I was one of about three people on the cleaning staff that didn't smoke, so if I wanted to be even halfway sociable during lunch breaks, I had to sit with all the smokers. After a few weeks, I started to notice the effect the passive smoking was having on me.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • fossyant
    fossyant Posts: 2,549
    Bilmey giving up the wine as well - that's a tough one. You'll go faster on the bike giving up the smokes.
  • Wrath Rob
    Wrath Rob Posts: 2,918
    I quite by starting to train very hard for sport that I was playing at national level. Smoking and training 5-6 times a week don't really go hand in hand. Unfortunately that only got rid of the physical addition. The mental addition took a further 4 years to break. Eventually I was in the pub with my old smoker mates and I cadged a fag for the walk home. I lit up, took 1 drag and threw the rest of it in the gutter in disgust. Mental addiction broken. That was probably the best cigarette I ever smoked as it was my last.

    So, follow the Wrath Rob quitting plan. Get your race license, join a cycling club and go racing. If you slip off the wagon you'll get totally rinsed in your next race and vow never to touch them again. Simple!
    FCN3: Titanium Qoroz.
  • veronese68
    veronese68 Posts: 27,252
    I sometimes wish I smoked so I could give up and save myself some money.
    Many years ago I was driving along with a mate one evening and he lit a fag, took a long drag, looked at it and threw it out of the window. He then muttered about what a ridiculous habit it was and threw the pack out of the window. The following morning I was driving back along the same road and I saw his aris sticking out of the bushes as the cravings had got to him and he didn't have any cash to buy more.
    I've never been a smoker, but virtually all of my friends have been. I don't like non-smokers, sanctimonious twunts.
    Good luck MSM.
  • Gussio
    Gussio Posts: 2,452
    Veronese68 wrote:
    I sometimes wish I smoked so I could give up and save myself some money.

    Funniest thing thing that I have read all week :lol:
  • msmancunia
    msmancunia Posts: 1,415
    Thank you all lots for the hints and tips (and jokes) too :lol: I had a quick look at my bank account last night and was pleasantly surprised - I think I've saved around £100 so far, which is conveniently what my car insurance now is (yep, that's what no no-claims and an OL postcode does for you)

    Ruberto - if you're going to go the NRT route when you give up, get your patches/sprays/whatever now - it took me three different branches of Boots to get my patches yesterday because they'd sold out because of this October promotion thing

    DDD - I DID have a nightmare last night - really need to stop sleeping with those patches on.

    Clarkey cat - your phrase
    its the rancid oniony nicotine flavour that just hangs around.
    has probably convinced me more than anything else to stick with it.

    So, I just need to get a grip, put it out of my head, think positively, and keep pedalling. I go out at weekends sometimes with a girl whose boyfriend (goes on Road sometimes) put me in touch with and she seriously kicks my butt going up hills. Maybe soon I'll be able to keep up :wink:
    Commute: Chadderton - Sportcity
  • msmancunia
    msmancunia Posts: 1,415
    Getting on the bike more will also do me good I think - a danish pastry two packets of crips and a frys chocolate cream so far, it's only 1045 and I'm only just getting started....
    Commute: Chadderton - Sportcity
  • rubertoe
    rubertoe Posts: 3,994
    msmancunia wrote:
    Ruberto - if you're going to go the NRT route when you give up, get your patches/sprays/whatever now - it took me three different branches of Boots to get my patches yesterday because they'd sold out because of this October promotion thing

    Allready on it from a failed atempt earlier in the year - 23 Days smoke free and now back to square one!

    I am an idiot
    "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

    PX Kaffenback 2 = Work Horse
    B-Twin Alur 700 = Sundays and Hills
  • DonDaddyD
    DonDaddyD Posts: 12,689
    I just stopped. i didn't use a substitute because that would be a substitute for smoking and essentially - in my mind - it would still be smoking or a need to smoke, so why not just smoke.

    I will have the odd fag every now and then. Like the rare occassion baby is being looked after and its just me and the Mrs. But these are so few and far between I'm suprised we don't just hook a pint of heroin to the vein because.. you know.. may be another 6 months till we get time to ourselves...

    All that said, having 'quit' nothing is better than the sweet smell of secondary smoke. Inhale, exhale, oh how I missed you. It's why you stand by the door at the pub so you can get a whiff. This is only equalled by being drunk and enjoying the sweet smell of ciggie smoke on your equally drunk girlfriends hair at the end of one almighty night out and no baby to worry about waking up. :-D
    Food Chain number = 4

    A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    Took me a few goes to stop having varied between 5 and 20 a day from about age 15 to 25. Stopped for a few months here and there, started up for a year, stopped for a few months, started up again etc.
    Eventually I'd quit enough times that I'm now a non smoker that smokes occasionally rather than a smoker trying to quit. No - really, I know it sounds silly, but there are no cravings to start smoking properly, ever.
    I still have a few occasionally with a drink but it's a few a month rather than a few every time I have a drink. Hate second hand smoke though, I didn't care to be around other smokers even when I did smoke - filthy habit, just happened to be one that I had.

    Hangovers after a night on booze and cigs is far worse than just booze. Ugh.

    I always just stopped smoking rather than bothering with reading books or patches, gum etc. You're more of a man if you just go cold turkey, eh DDD?
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  • Stay with it. There are absolutely zero downsides to quitting the nails. It will not be long before you wonder why you hadn't done it earlier.
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  • twist83
    twist83 Posts: 761
    Good luck! I have never smoked neither has my sister. Both my parents did though (Always outside) and they both quit about 15 years ago. Mum still gets the odd craving. My Dad however just one day decided to quit and never touched one ever again. He is that type of person where as the old dear struggled.

    From a non-smoker point of view I say do everything you can to do it. Think about it logically it has ZERO benefits. The only positive is driven by the addiction from starting which isnt a positive at all really. People who smoke generally smell, then there are the health and financial benefits of not smoking.

    We have a VERY attractive girl in the office. All 4 blokes hear found her hot. However we found out she smokes and that just destroys it really...

    Hope you manage to kick it though.